Exclusive: Teddy Long Confirms WWE RAW Legends Night Appearance
On today's episode of our podcastThe Wrestling Inc. Daily, host and Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman spoke with WWE Hall of Famer Teddy Long and Face 2 FaceWrestling owner Richard Borger, whom Long works with mentoring talent at Face 2 Face. Hausman, fresh of reviewing classic WWE PPV's, expressed his love for Long's dancing as general manager when he was running SmackDown. Long discussed where the inspiration for his dance came from.
"Well that dancing, a lot of people don't know [and] a lot of people do know, I got from my grandson," Long revealed. "We were just sitting around one day — well, he was trying to learn how to walk, and we put him in this walker. And every time we put him in there, he'd just go bobbing up and down. I did it on TV one day, but I was thinking about him.
"I was just doing it for him because you could tape SmackDown and then I'd come back home, and I'd show him. I said, 'Look, look, I'm doing your dance!' And one day, I got ready to walk out to go do something, and Vince looked at me and says, 'Hey, God damn it! Do that dance!' And that's how the dance started."
Borger then talked about temporarily shutting down Face 2 Face Wrestling Academy due to the pandemic. He discussed the protocols that the school is taking like having students self quarantine when they deviate from their guidelines.
"Face 2 Face shut down for about two or three months and then what we did was we had the students quarantine in that period of time and made sure that they all followed set guidelines, and if any of them were going to deviate from that, they needed to let us know and self quarantine for 14 days again, away from the school," Borger explained. "And so we've been going, I would say, since May or June slowly just letting the guys come in and get some work in, and it's really been beneficial for them.
"I think that they've had a place to work since then just on their training and getting better, but we never really fully shut down. None of our people yet have had COVID, knock on wood, but I think we set some really good guidelines. Some people chose not to come back, but the ones that did, I think we've got a core of about six to eight people that really watch it, and when they go out of town, they don't come back for two weeks. And Teddy is one of those notorious ones that doesn't come back."
Hausman noted that Long's role as general manager of SmackDown has made him synonymous with the brand. Long praised SmackDown for their recent high ratings and expressed his support for SmackDown and WWE.
"Well, I get a chance to watch it, not as often as I should or maybe as often as I could because I'm involved in a lot of other things, and basically, my concentration is on WWE, but SmackDown, I did hear that this past week, they had one that did the highest rating of all time," Long said. "And that's very good man. I love SmackDown. WWE, that'll always be my home. I'm loyal to Vince. He's always taken care of me. So only thing I can tell SmackDown to do is to keep on pushing, and anything that Teddy Long can do for SmackDown then Teddy Long will be available."
WWE has announced a RAW Legends Night for this coming Monday that will feature the return of legends like Ric Flair, Kurt Angel and Torrie Wilson. Long confirmed on the podcast that he will also be there, but he admits that he's not sure yet of what role he will serve.
"Well, that's the rumor I got too," Long admitted. "Basically, I think I will be there. Don't know what I'm doing but don't mind if I ain't doing nothing. Don't bother me. Just to be a part of it is enough." Hausman joked that someone was likely to not go one-on-one with The Undertaker and Long chided back, "Well, you never know. They might go one-on-one with Nick Hausman!"
You can find out more about Borger's Face 2 Face Wrestling Academy at Face2FaceWrestling.com. Borger and Long's full interview aired as part of today episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here.